Benefits of a Secure Cloud-Based Identity and Access Management (IAM) Solution

Cloud-hosted IT resources are becoming increasingly important to organizations. As the company migrates from on-premises to the cloud, it faces new challenges.

A constant challenge is ensuring that users can access disconnected resources in a simple and secure manner. The IT department must handle the increased number of accounts, from provision to new requests, password resets, and deactivation. IT management obligations may quickly mount, and rigorous standards aggravate any errors.

Identity and access management (IAM) strategies are becoming increasingly essential as enterprise IT grows. Identity and Access Management (IAM) is important to enhancing security efforts. It could assist your company in gaining additional perks, such as reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and eliminating wasted time.

The following is a quick overview of how cloud-based IAM solutions might improve your company’s cybersecurity capabilities.

Single Sign-On

An IAM solution must offer a unified user experience with simple and safe access. Organizations may use single sign-on (SSO) to integrate all business apps workers use to execute their tasks under a secure, universal interface.

Many people use the same password for work and personal accounts, but with an IAM solution, you can eliminate this problem and embed enhanced security directly into the login process.

This simplifies access and requires only one set of difficult credentials for users to access all of their resources.

IAM solutions also give enterprises a safe way to access cloud and third-party apps, data, and other resources. SSO solutions secure access behind a single login and employ security tokens (e.g., SAML) rather than traditional passwords to authenticate a user’s identity before accessing the associated resources.

Identity Management Boosts Efficiency

Identity Management (IAM) simplifies the onboarding of new employees and provides access to all aspects of the company’s system.

This enables faster access distribution, allowing them to begin working immediately. This way, business agility increases by utilizing technology’s advantages to meet today’s demands. Its use leads to increased company success.

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

In MFA, a user must complete two or more steps to verify their identity. Typically, MFA combines elements of who you are, what you have, what you know, or where you are. When combined with SSO, this extra step allows your business to begin to safeguard its resources and data genuinely.

Data leaks or other cyber security breaches can easily compromise usernames and passwords, but MFA is virtually incorruptible, allowing it to be implemented easily, making it one of the most important components of IAM.

MFA has gotten much easier with contemporary push technology, requiring only the press of a button on a smartphone as the “second” element.

Ultimately, with MFA, IAM concentrates on managing and safeguarding each access transaction by monitoring and preserving the identity of the individual doing the transaction.

Ensure Compliance with Regulatory Requirements

Many statutes, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and GDPR, contain data security, privacy, and protection standards closely related to IAM.

To demonstrate compliance, enterprises must comprehend and be able to verify data safeguards, such as who has access to it, how that access is safeguarded mechanisms for revoking access and password management. In compliance audits, IAM systems also demonstrate that corporate information is protected with appropriate controls and show where and how credentials are used.

Simplify the Life of Security Personnel

Besides securing an enterprise, identity and access management systems help security teams be more efficient and effective. In IAM, administrators can define roles based on which users are granted access.

This decreases the likelihood of offering approved access credentials to users who shouldn’t have them and considerably minimizes user onboarding and off-boarding processes.

Managing privileged user access is an important part of this process. To prevent users from accessing resources, administrators can apply the least privilege principle to their user roles. This guarantees that staff, contractors, guests, and partners have just the access required to accomplish their work tasks.

For instance, the accountant can have administrative privileges in the same application as the mailroom clerk, but privileged user access ensures the clerk can only see his pay dashboard.

Reduce Human Error

According to a 2019 IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report, human error accounted for roughly 25% of all cybersecurity incidents. There are various challenges and uncertainties when it comes to granting access to resources in a manual request-for-approval method. Your IT department can concentrate on more important projects by automating these requests with IAM automation.

The appropriate resource manager approves or denies access to a resource when an employee requests access. Upon approval, IAM service automation grants access to the resource. The result is that your team is more productive, human error is minimized, the risk of a data breach is reduced, and all requests are logged for easy auditing.

Manage and Reduce IT Costs

A typical password reset costs an organization $70, and password resets account for 30%-50% of all help desk calls. Because IAM solutions make administration easier for help desk personnel and administrators, time spent on tedious activities like assisting users barred out from their accounts may now be spent on higher-priority responsibilities.

Integrating user accounts into single identities can save additional organizational costs in addition to preventing data breaches. Utilizing cloud-based IAM services can also reduce or eliminate the need to buy and maintain on-premises IAM systems.

Conclusion

Even the most well-intentioned organizations can fall victim to the challenges of deploying an IAM solution due to its cost and complexity. The imperative becomes apparent, however, when enterprises manually consider the costs of a potential security breach or analyze the inefficiencies in provisioning and de-provisioning access to corporate resources.

Tools4ever HelloID is a cloud-based Identity & Access Management (IAM) system that is both contemporary and safe. HelloID addresses your organization’s increasingly complex IAM concerns with a single powerful and cost-effective Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) platform.

HelloID is a full-service, cloud-based IDaaS platform that simplifies secure access, improves organizational efficiency, and lowers risk exposures. The HelloID app enhances user experience, increases security, and relieves IT staff of their duties.

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